One Poem At A Time launches April 1

One of eleven One Poem At A Time billboards throughout Louisville's Smoketown neighborhood.

One Poem At A Time - a new public health policy initiative of IDEAS xLab and Creative Agents of Change Foundation - replaces negative and predatory advertising and billboards in Louisville’s Smoketown neighborhood with positive photographs and poetry depicting Smoketown community members and lifting up their voices.

“Walking through Smoketown, I was overwhelmed with the signs that filled the community," said poet Hannah Drake, a Cultural Producer & Strategist with IDEAS xLab. "Signs encouraging people to sell their homes for cash, signs encouraging those with diabetes to sell their test strips, billboards for a multitude of lawyers, drug sniffing dogs, among many others.”

Informed by the community-based participatory nature of Project HEAL (Health. Equity. Art. Learning.), One Poem At A Time was developed by Drake with inspiration, feedback and input from Smoketown residents and community members through arts and culture events, meetings and surveys in 2016 and early 2017.

"Through Project HEAL, arts and cultural production become a 'language' with which communities define, develop, and champion their own sustainable strategies for improved well-being," explained IDEAS xLab CEO and co-founder Theo Edmonds on how artists are becoming catalysts to spark collective action via Project HEAL.

The launch of One Poem At A Time, which is FREE and open to community members on April 1, 2017 includes a guided Smoketown Poetry Walk past many of the new billboards, The Smoketown Monologues, and a conversation focused on bringing together residents, community stakeholders and policy-makers to explore policy and ordinance changes that could restrict negative/predatory advertising in low-income communities like Smoketown.

"If we are to heal our communities across Kentucky -- from rural to urban -- we must focus on health, equity and justice at the grassroots," said State Representative Attica Scott (D-41). "I know that blight exists across our state and Smoketown, just like every other neighborhood, is worthy of policies that respect neighborhood beautification and economic development."

"It is our responsibility to help create a safe, healthy environment for ALL our neighbors. Positive messaging reinforces positive choices,” said Barbara Sexton Smith, Fourth District Metro Councilwoman of One Poem At A Time. “When children are encouraged to love themselves they are more likely to be compassionate toward others."

“The Smoketown Neighborhood Association supports One Poem At A Time’s community-based, participatory approach to the development of a positive neighborhood identity with Smoketown residents,” shared Randall Weber, President of the Smoketown Neighborhood Association.

3pm Vivian Lasley-Bibbs, Branch Manager and Epidemiologist for the Kentucky Department for Public Health Office of Health Equity presents proclamation from the Governor of Kentucky declaring April as Minority Health Month in the commonwealth.

Festivities also include screen printing with Steam Exchange, snacks + water station, health resources and screenings.

Supporters of Project HEAL and One Poem At A Time include: Health Impact Project Implementation Grant from Pew Charitable Trust and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation The Educational Foundation of America Sutherland Foundation KentuckyOne Health Owsley Brown III Jim and Libby Voyles Fund for the Arts New Directions Housing Corporation Institute for Healthy Air, Water and Soil Private donations through Creative Agents of Change Foundation, Inc.

Sign up to receive updates!

Sign up to get interesting news and updates delivered to your inbox.

Email Address

First Name

Last Name

By submitting this form, you are granting: IDEAS xLab, 803 E Market St, Louisville, KY, 40206, United States, permission to email you. You may unsubscribe via the link found at the bottom of every email. (See our Email Privacy Policy for details.) Emails are serviced by Constant Contact.

Creative Agents of Change Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit based in Louisville, KY. All donations are tax deductible.

FUNDER ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: We are grateful for the generous support and thought partnership of our organizational funders listed below. And, especially, to the many private donors who selflessly give of their time, talent and treasure to support our work.